Were you leery at first of eating All your Calories?

Cletc

Were you leery at first of eating All your Calories?

Did you eat them all anyway?

How long has it been?

Did you really lose the predicted "per week" pounds lost predicted by MFP?

This Newbie could use some motivation about this! :-)

I set my calories to 1.5 pounds lost per week, but
it seems a lot of posts are saying to Keep Eating and Eat Some More :-)

But that seems like a lot of calories especially to eat back my Jogging calories too?

BryanAir

Was a little at the beginning, but I ate them anyway. I also ate back quite a bit of my exercise calories, sometimes all of them, sometimes half, sometimes none if I wasn't hungry.

I've been tracking my weight since Jan of this year and steadily lost 10 lbs per month.

It really does work.

ladyhawk00

No.
Yes.
Almost 5 months
Yes.

If you're concerned about over or underestimating, invest in a good HRM with a chest strap. Then you have a pretty accurate estimate of your burns and don't have to worry that you're eating back too much.

nichole325

I never eat back my calories that I worked out...I eat about 1200-1300 a day and work out and that's it...I'm not sure if I'm doing it right and honestly I haven't had the nerve to weigh myself yet (I've been doing this about 2 weeks) but I hate scales...haha.

I'd like some input on this too!

cgeiser1

yes and I still am weary.

I was at 1400 calories to lose a pound a week. And it Worked for the most part. Now I'm at 1600 calories to lose 0.5 pounds a week. (people have said it's better when your trying to lose the last 10 pounds.)

I haven't really had enough time to see if the new calories are working. Time will tell.

BabyDuchess

I work out on M/W/F and on M/W I eat about 1/2 of my calories back and on Friday I eat most of them back and that's what's working for me. The reason why I only eat 1/2 is because I'm not sure the exercise calories burned are 100% accurate and I definitely don't want to overeat. Also when I get full, I don't push beyond that feeling because that's what got me here to begin with. Use your own judgment and play around with your calories until you find what works for you. :flowerforyou:

Cletc

If you're concerned about over or underestimating, invest in a good HRM with a chest strap. Then you have a pretty accurate estimate of your burns and don't have to worry that you're eating back too much.

I have a Garmin Forerunner 305
Is the HRM the best indicator of calories burned? For some reason I thought it would be the most arbitrary (don't ask me why :-) )

PediDocChicago

I'm leery!! I just started this week. I love the tools, but I feel that if I eat back all my exercise calories that will be too much. I'm splitting the difference for now. This is based in part on prior experience with weight watchers (which did work when I did it) which gave me around 1200kcal (same as this recommends) but I did not eat the extra calories I earned from exercise in order to lose weight. I think you just have to try it out for a few weeks and then decide for yourself based on your success. But at least eat the recommended without the exercise. If you starve yourself you will not lose weight and you will give up after a few days of being **frickin** hungry! Good luck.

Azuleelan

I don't eat back my exercise calories. This allows for a higher deficit and faster weightloss.
As long as you are eating at least 1200 calories of good, fresh food, you are fine

LuckyLeprechaun

yes.
yes.
since december 2008, with one year of "stall-out" in the middle (bereavement, not related to MFP)
I lost more than was predicted.

and I concur that a heart rate monitor is a very good tool to use, because it helps you stay more accurate about how many calories you have burned (earned!)

Just try the system for the 5 weeks, and see how it turns out. Those 5 weeks are going to pass by anyway, right?

ladyhawk00

This may help some:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/153704-myth-or-fact-simple-math-3500-calories-one-pound-eat

LuckyLeprechaun

I don't eat back my exercise calories. This allows for a higher deficit and faster weightloss.
As long as you are eating at least 1200 calories of good, fresh food, you are fine

this is not accurate. If you burn up a lot of calories during exercise, then eating only 1200 will not provide the fuel/nutrients your body needs, and it will start eating away at your muscle mass to compensate. The scale will go down, but so will your overall health and tone. You'll becoem what is known as "skinny-fat"

You need to fuel your body. Faster is NOT better. If speed of weight loss was all that is important, we would all just get on crack...

ladyhawk00

If you're concerned about over or underestimating, invest in a good HRM with a chest strap. Then you have a pretty accurate estimate of your burns and don't have to worry that you're eating back too much.

I have a Garmin Forerunner 305
Is the HRM the best indicator of calories burned? For some reason I thought it would be the most arbitrary (don't ask me why :-) )

It's the best indicator for something convenient. You can also use a Bodybugg or Bodymedia, which will calculate all day, not just for exercise.

ladyhawk00

I don't eat back my exercise calories. This allows for a higher deficit and faster weightloss.
As long as you are eating at least 1200 calories of good, fresh food, you are fine

this is not accurate. If you burn up a lot of calories during exercise, then eating only 1200 will not provide the fuel/nutrients your body needs, and it will start eating away at your muscle mass to compensate. The scale will go down, but so will your overall health and tone. You'll becoem what is known as "skinny-fat"

You need to fuel your body. Faster is NOT better. If speed of weight loss was all that is important, we would all just get on crack...

Ditto

ShellyMacchi

at first i was always under my recommended calories (without exercising) by at least 100 to 200 calories.
yes, i was losing...
but i slowly started eating more (up to my full allocated calories) and found i started losing more per week!
needless to say.. i was then convinced *S*

maryloo2011

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Were you leery at first of eating All your Calories? Did you eat them all anyway? How long has it been?

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I can't remember the last time I had a "good" relationship with food since high school. As someone who stands at 5'8" and was 117lbs at the beginning of February, hell YES I was leery about eating all of my calories. But, I really thought how everyone here is SO into this I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. I started exercising, counting my calories (mainly to make sure I was eating enough...I had my goal set for maintenance, not losing weight) and then started to incorporate weight training. I am happy and pleased to say that while I gained a little more than 10lbs I still fit into the same exact clothes in the same way. I'm just more lean now I also threw out my scale. I've never felt better in my entire life physically and somewhat emotionally.

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This Newbie could use some motivation about this! :-) I set my calories to 1.5 pounds lost per week, but
it seems a lot of posts are saying to Keep Eating and Eat Some More :-) But that seems like a lot of calories especially to eat back my Jogging calories too?

---

Trust (most) the people here! There is a reason why so many of them have been successful in achieving their goals. After a while, you begin to learn and understand the how and why of your body and it's relationship with food and exercise. I certainly have...

Best of luck, glad you're here!

manny_bee

You need to fuel your body. Faster is NOT better. If speed of weight loss was all that is important, we would all just get on crack...

i've honestly considered this, but i know fat crack heads. lol

LuckyLeprechaun

at first i was always under my recommended calories (without exercising) by at least 100 to 200 calories.
yes, i was losing...
but i slowly started eating more (up to my full allocated calories) and found i started losing more per week!
needless to say.. i was then convinced *S*

if you search around on the threads, you will see this kind of success story is SO COMMON!!!! It sounds hard to believe, but eating revs up your metabolism and keeps your energy up.

LuckyLeprechaun

You need to fuel your body. Faster is NOT better. If speed of weight loss was all that is important, we would all just get on crack...

i've honestly considered this, but i know fat crack heads. lol

bet you don't know any healthy ones! LOL

Pebble321

Were you leery at first of eating All your Calories?
- No, I though it wasn't enough But then I worked out how much actual food I could eat if I cut out chocolate and decided it was plenty if I paid attention to eating reasonable portions, not huge ones.

Did you eat them all anyway?
- Yes, still do (I aim to finish the day anywhere from 100 - 1 cals under my NET goal of 1500).

How long has it been?
- 4 months.

Did you really lose the predicted "per week" pounds lost predicted by MFP?
- I've lost more, quite a bit more. I initially set my goal to lose .5 lb a week but found I was losing 1kg (2.2 lb) a week. AFter about 6 weeks, I changed my activity level from sedentary to lightly active and my goal to lose 1lb a week. I have continued to lose 1kg every 10 days (averaged out, there are a few ups and downs) so I'm still losing more than MFP predicts.

I'd suggest give it a go as MFP suggests, including eating most of your exercise cals and see how you go over a few weeks. (I'll bet this is less food and better food than you were eating before).
Once you've tried it for a while you can decide for yourself what is working for you, and tweak the numbers if you need to.

Using MFP has been a real eye opener for me - in spite of about 30 years of dieting on and off, I just hadn't found something that really made sense. Using MFP has reinfoced that I don't have to feel as though I'm depriving myself, I don't have to go hungry, food is not the enemy, calories are necessary not evil! I do have to watch my portions and make smart choices about what I eat and how much I exercise but I can still have chocolate and wine and eat out and be social!

Good luck on your journey to find a healthier you!

ShellyMacchi

I don't eat back my exercise calories. This allows for a higher deficit and faster weightloss.
As long as you are eating at least 1200 calories of good, fresh food, you are fine

actually... when i was first telling my DR about this plan, he thought i meant i was ONLY eating 1200 calories a day regardless of exercise.. and he was about to give me a stern lecture about not eating enough to be healthy... but as soon as i told him mfp is set up so that you ARE expected to eat back the exercise calories you burn per day. he was much happier, and in fact THEN wanted more info about the site so he could recommend it to others *S*